1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk device having a disk rotational drive unit and a disk conveying mechanism, and in particular relates to a disk device capable of switching between a clamp mechanism for clamping a disk to the rotational drive unit and a conveying mechanism.
2. Description of the Related Art
A vehicle-mounted disk device includes a disk rotational drive unit, a clamp mechanism for clamping a disk to the rotational drive unit, and a conveying mechanism for feeding the disk to the rotational drive unit, as a mechanism unit. Also, it is necessary to switch the transmission of a conveying force for the disk between the clamping operation of the clamp mechanism and the releasing operation of the clamp mechanism.
The mechanism unit is supported by an elastic member, such as a damper, so as to prevent vehicle vibrations from being directly transmitted to the rotational-drive unit, preventing sound skipping during the disk driving. Moreover, it is necessary to restrict the mechanism unit from moving when the disk is fed to the rotational drive unit and when the disk is discharged from the rotational drive unit. Therefore, a conventional disk apparatus is provided with a pair of sliding plates disposed at both ends of the chassis for linearly reciprocating, so that by the moving force of the sliding plates, the operations of clamping or unclamping the disk to or from the rotational drive unit, bringing a roller constituting the conveying mechanism in contact or out of contact with the disk, and locking the mechanism unit are performed.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-331997 discloses a disk player that includes a lock arm rotating about a shaft aligned in parallel with a surface of a disk as a fulcrum and a link plate for rotating the lock arm, which are disposed in a floating section. In the disk player, the lock arm rotates so as to be retained at both ends to a case, so that the floating section becomes locked to the case. The rotating operation of the lock arm reciprocates a loading roller between a position where the loading roller contacts the disk and a position where it is separated from the disk. Furthermore, a clamp-bar arm plate is operated by a linearly moving force of the link plate for clamping the disk and unclamping the disk.
However, since a conventional disk device having a linearly moving slide plate operates a clamping mechanism and an arm by sliding an inclined cam fabricated on the slide plate on the arm supporting the clamping mechanism and conveying rollers, the load for sliding the slide plate is significantly large. Also, locking a mechanism unit using this slide plate increases the load when the slide plate is further operated.
In general, the inclined cam is coated with grease so as to reduce a sliding frictional-resistance; however, because of the temperature dependency of the grease, the load largely increases at low temperature, for example. Also, at high temperature, there is a problem that the grease runs off the inclined cam, so that the device is difficult to be operated at a low load for a long period.
In the above-mentioned Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-331997, the transfer rollers are moved up and down by the rotational force of the lock arm while a damper arm-plate is moved up and down by the sliding force of the linearly operating link plate. Therefore, the sliding load of the damper arm-plate for clamping the disk and unclamping the disk is large, and it is also difficult to establish the timing of the up and down movement of the transfer rollers and the clamping/unclamping of the damper arm-plate.